SIP 059: Planning at home swim lessons

An interview with Teresa Stewart of Safe Splashes Swim School in Arizona

Teresa has been teaching swim lessons most of her life. She uniquely finished her lesson program while young and they made her a co-teacher to give her something to do while at lessons. She has contributed to the Swimming Lessons Ideas website, and has two posts you should check out too:

In this conversation, we talk about how Teresa is a planner. She runs a successful swim lesson program over the summer from May through August teaching 6 hours a day in her backyard pool. She has two main goals that define her lessons:

#1: Be a positive voice in the child’s life.

#2: Teach young to survive when they fall in the water.

These two goals permeate Teresa’s lessons and shape how she crafts her lesson plans and determines her purpose. She mentioned that there was a point where each week they’d hear about four children dying in pools. Teresa’s goal is to do all she can to stop drowning through fun effective instruction.

We go in depth on the following topics:

Assessing new swimmers

Using American Red Cross levels as a guidepost for early instruction

Using games to teach skills and introducing new skills without fear

How Oriental Trading can provide low-cost prizes to encourage learning and effort.

How positive confidence boosting enhances your lessons

Insurance needs for small business out of your house

At the end, Teresa shares a bunch of great games with us

My favorite parts of our conversation are where Teresa talks about updating her lesson plans and adjusting mid week for each child she works with. I’m also fond of her wealth of games and activities she reviews at the end.

This is the welcome letter that Teresa sends out to her potential clients and it includes prices and waivers.